www.public4you.fora.pl

john4525

et Hilda
Doolittle.”
“Worse than the ?rst one.”
“All rightone more guess. H.D. H. .and DJust a
moment. .How aboutJust a moment. .Ah. .Yes
here we are. H for the weeping philosopherHeraclitus .and
D for the laughing philosopherDemocritus. Heraclitus and
Democritus.the two poles of the dialectic.”
“A very clever answer.”
“Am I right?”
“Noof course not. But a clever answer just the same.”
“You can’t say I didn’t try.”
“NoI can’t. That’s why I’m going to reward you with the
correct answer. Because you tried. Are you ready?”
80 the new york trilogy
“Ready.”
“The initials H.D. in the name Henry Dark refer to Humpty
Dumpty.”
“Who?”
“Humpty Dumpty. You know who I mean. The egg.”
“As in ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall’?”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Humpty Dumpty: the purest embodiment of the human
condition. Listen carefullysir. What is an egg? It is that which
has not yet been born. A paradoxis it not? For how can
Humpty Dumpty be alive if he has not been born? And yethe
is alive―make no mistake. We know that because he can
speak. More than thathe is a philosopher of language. ‘When
I use a wordHumpty Dumpty saidin rather a scornful ton [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]